#occupy us

[f4t15]

[bellavidaletty]

Documenting History

When I snapped this photo I wanted to document the many complexities of American society today: American citizens of various ages & ethnicity expressing themselves next to a homeless man in front of a major tourist attraction (Bayside) with the freshly renovated Freedom tower in the background.

There are many problems.  They need to be dealt with individually for the benefit of all.

[existentialistmumbojumbo]

The hashtag#occupywallstreet inspired the most basic of organizing strategies: sit-ins. OWS sit-ins became encampments, many of which are now being dismantled by law enforcement and debilitated by weather. As the movement is increasingly out of the sight of pundits and the popular media, and criticized as leaderless and lacking a clear purpose, it has become fashionable to talk about OWS as inevitably failing. This is a mistake. Encampment “occupiers” come and go; hashtag followers live on in cyberspace, where OWS is spawning leaders and developing goals, just not in the way that most people are accustomed to.

[existentialistmumbojumbo]

OWS marks 3 months, defies critics & gains momentum

[spiritual-punk]

Its an old article but its got a great quote:

To people outside the movement who assert that Occupy protesters haven't put forward specific goals, protester Tim Weldon said: “What kind of social change ever happened in 48 days? I mean just think about it. Just read history.”

[lasttimelover]

All these Occupy protests I feel are accomplishing something completely different than what they were originally protesting: Revealing the corruption of our country's security forces.

[existentialistmumbojumbo]

Ragtag, but enthusiastic Occupy Wall Street protestors, one of them not even wearing shoes, set off from New York Wednesday on a two-week march to Washington, DC.

Monitored at every step by police, two dozen activists filed aboard a ferry leaving Manhattan to cross the River Hudson to New Jersey and began their ambitious protest march.

The marchers hope to arrive in the capital by November 23 in time to protest the meeting of a congressional committee set to decide whether or not to extend tax cuts that the protestors claim help only the very rich.

Walking about 20 miles a day, and covering well over 200 miles, they plan to stop in a dozen cities and towns along the way, spreading OWS’ message.

“The reason for going down to DC specifically is to make sure the billionaires get taxed,” said Mae Fraser, 32, toting a rucksack and jostling through the thick lunch-hour crowds on her way to the ferry.

Occupy Wall Street sprang up in New York in September with an encampment in Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street. Since then, protests have spread to a dozen other US cities as mostly youthful activists seek to highlight what they say is gross inequality and unfairness in the US economy.

The walk grabbed plenty of media attention, with US network cameras crowding to catch the protestors’ departure.

[existentialistmumbojumbo]

Occupy Wall Street has faced criticism from the outset. Since September 17, the protesters have been condemned for a number of things, among them disorganization, a lack of specific demands, and the absence of a unified message and goal. Whether or not you agree with these criticisms, they raise worthwhile questions: what comprises an effective social protest movement, and how does it accomplish anything?

There has, however, been another objection to Occupy Wall Street, one less thoughtful and more catty: the demonstrators have been attacked for being young. “Occupy Wall Street protesters are behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats,” ran a New York Daily News headline.Boston Globe op-ed columnist Joanna Weiss described the participants as “furious young protesters, some of them wearing masks and climbing flagpoles” and went on to clarify that such behavior constituted “a circus—some participants seem to have taken a chute straight from Burning Man.”

Meanwhile, in the first piece to appear in the New York Times on the subject, writer Ginia Bellafante buried her scorn underneath ostensible concern for the demonstrators:

“The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face—finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out. But what were the chances that its members were going to receive the attention they so richly deserve carrying signs like ‘Even if the World Were to End Tomorrow I’d Still Plant a Tree Today’?”